New vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae, which is the leading cause of invasive diseases, are important advances in improving childhood health. Following the introduction of heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to the national vaccine schedule in more than 30 countries, evaluation of immunogenicity of the vaccines has been an important procedure to ...

Subsoil physicochemical constraints such as primary salinity and high boron (B) can significantly reduce grain yields across wide areas of Australia. Financially viable amelioration options are limited for cropping systems on these soils, which has raised interest in 'genetic solutions'. Increasing the tolerance of crops to high salinity and boron ...

Sandplain soils on the south coast of Western Australia have multiple limitations to crop production that include water repellence, low water and nutrient retention, subsoil acidity, and high soil strength. Crops on sandplain soils achieve, on average, almost 85% of their rainfall-limited yield potential; however, where there are multiple limitations ...

Crop yield in the sandy soils of the Western Australian wheatbelt is influenced strongly by the plant-available water (PAW) and strength of subsoils. The fabric of hard subsoils of fluvial and aeolian origin has been compared with that of in situ saprolite materials that also occur as subsoils in Western ...

Available soil information and unpublished data from soil survey indicate that high clay contents and high bulk density are the major subsoil constraints to crop growth in the high rainfall zone (HRZ) of south-eastern Australia. Seven high rainfall agroecological zones are proposed as sub-divisions of the region to focus future ...

In southern Australia the ability of field crops to extract soil moisture and nutrients from depth depends on the physical and chemical properties of the subsoil. In texture-contrast soils accumulation of water and nutrients in the E or A2 horizon, immediately above a clay B horizon of much lower hydraulic ...

Subsoil physicochemical constraints can limit crop production on alkaline soils of south-eastern Australia. Fifteen farmer paddocks sown to a range of crops including canola, lentil, wheat, and barley in the Wimmera and Mallee of Victoria and the mid-north and Eyre Peninsula of South Australia were monitored from 2003 to 2006 ...

Pot experiments were conducted using a sandy loam soil and various electrolyte solutions such as NaCl, CaCl2, [Na.sub.2]S[O.sub.4], and Hoagland nutrient solution containing all macro- and micro-nutrient elements in appropriate proportions, inducing different electrical conductivity (EC) levels of the soil solution during the growth of Krichauff wheat while the water ...

Productivity of grain crops grown under dryland conditions in north-eastern Australia depends on efficient use of rainfall and available soil moisture accumulated in the period preceding sowing. However, adverse subsoil conditions including high salinity, sodicity, nutrient imbalances, acidity, alkalinity, and high concentrations of chloride (Cl) and sodium (Na) in many ...

The Formosa biotype of the decapitating fly Pseudacteon curvatus Borgmeier was released and successfully established as a self-sustaining biocontrol agent of the red imported fire ant Solenopsis invicta Buren at several sites around Gainesville, FL in 2003. In order to determine the status of these releases, 59 sites were surveyed ...

Pest management of insects and mites on orchids has been based on the use of synthetic organic pesticides. However, less-toxic chemical control is needed by hobbyists and small growers. Orchids from 8 genera were treated with Silwet L-77 alone and no evidence of phytotoxicity was seen. Subsequently, 3 petroleum oils ...

Honey baits were used to assess the activity and abundance of nectar-drinking ants in fire successional habitats of rocklands on Andros Island, Bahamas. Vegetation was sampled in pineyard and coppice habitats (the same communities as Florida's pine rocklands and hammocks), revealing a larger proportion of taxa with extrafloral nectaries in ...

Red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, workers were sampled from 26 colonies in Virginia during the 2007-2008 time period. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were used to determine colony social form (monogyny or polygyny) by genotyping ants at the Gp9 locus. Twenty of the colonies (76.9%) were found to ...

Evaluation of combinations of flower odor compounds in northern Florida revealed that linalool was synergistic in attractiveness with phenylacetaldehyde (PAA) to the migratory moth velvetbean caterpillar (Anticarsia gemmatalis Hubner). This noctuid was the most common species collected from traps with a binary lure composed of PAA and linalool, with over ...

A major obstacle for many studies examining sperm competition and cryptic female choice in insects has been the identification and quantification of sperm stored in the sperm storage organs of females that have mated with two or more males. Historically, sexual selection studies have focused primarily on paternity outcomes for ...

The root weevil Diaprepes abbreviatus (L.) has been reared since 1992 on an artificial diet first reported in 1982. Recently, we have shown that several ingredients included in the original diet have little or no effect on insect performance. Here we examined the effects of 2 principal drivers (cottonseed meal ...

The neem tree Azadirachta indica A. Juss produces numerous allelochemical compounds. The most effective active ingredient in A. indica based insecticides is azadirachtin. We found that azadirachtin did not cause mortality, antifeeding responses, or change growth rate of Melanotus communis (Gyllenhal) wireworms. However, azadirachtin treated soil was repellent to the ...

Pupal parasitism of the apple ermine moth, Yponomeuta malinellus Zeller (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae), was investigated in northeast Asia with the goal of identifying potential biological controls of the moth, which threatened the apple industry in Washington State, USA during the 1980s. Seven primary and 2 secondary parasitoids were recorded from 27, ...

The sterile insect technique (SIT) is widely used to suppress or eradicate target insect pest populations. The effectiveness of SIT depends on the ability of the released sterile males to mate with and inseminate wild females. Irradiation is effective for sterilizing mass-reared insects, and the negative impacts of this procedure ...

Huanglongbing (citrus greening) is one of the most serious diseases of citrus. Movement of the disease occurs as a result of natural transmission by the insect vector and by movement of infected plant material. We demonstrate here that Diaphorina citri Kuwayama, the vector of citrus greening pathogens, can be transported ...

A new soft scale genus Phalacrococcus Hodges & Hodgson gen. nov. and a new species Phalacrococcus howertoni Hodges & Hodgson sp. nov., is described from Florida, United States. The adult female and adult male, male and female second-instars, first-instars, and pupa are described and illustrated. Host records, biology, and distribution ...

The lobate lac scale, Paratachardina pseudolobata Kondo & Gullan, attacks large numbers of plants in Florida. The scales primarily infest the branches and main stems <2 cm in diameter; rarely were they found on stems that were larger than 4 cm in diameter or on leaves and never on roots. ...

Clinically, Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the development of tremors and rigidity that is found primarily in patients over the age of 50. At the cellular level, it is clear that the pathology of PD results from the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia ...

Cardiac dysfunction due to ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) is associated with marked changes in membrane function and subsequent [Ca.sup.2+]-handling abnormalities in cardiomyocytes. The membrane abnormalities in hearts subjected to I/R arise primarily from oxidative stress as a consequence of increased formation of reactive oxygen species and other oxidants, as well as reduced ...

Cardiovascular diseases are the predominant cause of death in patients with diabetes mellitus. Underlying mechanism for the susceptibility of diabetic patients to cardiovascular diseases remains unclear. Elevated oxidative stress was detected in diabetic patients and in animal models of diabetes. Hyperglycemia, oxidatively modified atherogenic lipoproteins, and advanced glycation end products ...

Mammalian hibernation is composed of long periods of deep torpor interspersed with brief periods of arousal in which the animals, fueled by high rates of oxygen-based thermogenesis in brown adipose tissue and skeletal muscle, power themselves back to euthermic (~37[degrees]C) body temperatures. Strong antioxidant defences are important both for long-term ...

Diabetes and its associated complications are major known health disorders. Diabetes mellitus increases the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality by promoting cardiomyopathy. It appears to arise as a result of the diabetic state, at times independent of vascular or valvular pathology. It manifests initially as asymptomatic diastolic dysfunction, which ...

The vascular adventitia, defined as the area between the external elastic lamina and the outermost edge of the blood vessel, is composed primarily of fibroblasts and for years was thought to be merely a passive structural support for the blood vessel. Consequently, studies pertaining to the role of the adventitia ...

Iron starvation and oxidative stress are 2 hurdles that bacteria must overcome to establish an infection. Pathogenic bacteria have developed many strategies to efficiently infect a broad range of hosts, including humans. The best characterized systems make use of regulatory proteins to sense the environment and adapt accordingly. For example, ...

The [alpha]-adrenergic receptors (adrenoceptors) are activated by the endogenous agonists epinephrine and norepinephrine. They are G protein-coupled receptors that may be broadly classified into [[alpha].sub.1] (subclasses [[alpha].sub.1A], [[alpha].sub.1B], [[alpha].sub.1D]) and [[alpha].sub.2] (subclasses [[alpha].sub.2A], [[alpha].sub.2B], [[alpha].sub.2C]). The [[alpha].sub.1]-adrenoceptors act by binding to G[[alpha].sub.q] subunits of the G proteins, causing activation of ...

Depression in cardiac performance due to ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury is associated with the development of oxidative stress and decreased sarcolemmal (SL) [Na.sup.+]/[K.sup.+]-ATPase activity. Since both I/R and oxidative stress have been reported to promote the occurrence of intracellular [Ca.sup.2+] overload and activate proteases such as calpain, this study was undertaken ...

Recent work from our group showed that the nuclear envelope membranes contain several G protein-coupled receptors, including prostaglandin [E.sub.2] ([EP.sub.3]R) and endothelin-1 (ET-1) receptors. Activation of [EP.sub.3]R increased endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) RNA expression in nuclei. eNOS and inducible NOS (iNOS) are reported to also be present at the ...

Autophagy is an intracellular lysosomal degradation process, which in the case of macroautophagy, is characterized by the formation of double-membraned autophagosomes. Enhanced under stress conditions, autophagy can function to promote cell survival or cell death depending on the type of cellular stress. Interest in autophagy has increased substantially in the ...

Aging is a multifactorial process that involves changes at the cellular, tissue, organ and the whole body levels resulting in decreased functioning, development of diseases, and ultimately death. Oxidative stress is believed to be a very important factor in causing aging and age-related diseases. Oxidative stress is caused by an ...